Monday, February 28, 2011

For those who weren't in Thursday's class -- what's due at the beginning of class Tuesday is a sketch for your poster design. Please select one of the bands in the "Band Links" section of this blog (top right) -- listen to some of their tracks, and pick the one whose music gives you the most in the way of visual ideas. This sketch is an assignment unto itself, with its own grade. It doesn't have to be completely worked out, but I don't want you starting Tuesday's class with a totally blank slate -- Tuesday will be a work period for working on the posters. The size format for the posters will be 11"x17".

Also, for those who weren't in Thursday's class, there's one more detail for the poster designs: you're

going to be making a 2-color poster. Of course, by overprinting colors, and by using the white of the paper itself, you can make a 2-color poster look like it has more than two colors -- but you're restricted to two color plates. Here are some examples of 2-color posters:

Thursday, February 10, 2011

As a prelude to our poster project, everyone is going to do an in-class presentation on a poster artist or a poster movement, so that we get exposed to a variety of poster styles and approaches. Feel free to present images in powerpoint, or as an image slideshow. Everyone will have 10 minutes to present and take questions. In addition to the presentation, you'll need to email me a minimum three page paper (double-spaced), which will serve as an outline of your presentation. That's three written pages -- not one written page and two pages of pasted-in images. If you want to include images as supplements to the three page paper, feel free. Include a fourth page that lays out your bibliography. If you can get your hands on some actual books to bring to class to show around, please do. There are a few poster art books in Prim Library.

In your presentation and paper, give a description of the artist/movement, and what the social context for the work was. Who was the audience for the posters? What sorts of messages were they trying to convey? Who paid for the posters to be made (if relevant -- some posters, like the May '68 posters, were not commissioned)? What made the posters interesting or unique? What made them stand out? In addition to giving some biographical and social context, pick out several images that interest you, and critique them in some detail. What sorts of formal decisions make the posters "work" (or fail to work, if you think they're bad posters?)

Single out at least two posters, and write about the following elements in each poster:

Describe the qualities of the fonts, and how they are usedDescribe the use of colorDescribe the use of imageryWrite about the balance between text and image, and the overall compositionDescribe the communicative impact of the poster

You could break down the paper in this way:1 page of personal/cultural background to the artist/movement1 page dedicated to a specific poster1 page dedicated to another specific poster1 bibliography page

Below is a list of poster artists or poster movements to choose from. Plug the name or prase into Google images and pick something that appeals to you visually. Once you've chosen, write your choice in a "comment" to this blog post -- don't pick artists/movements that have already been "claimed" in the comments section (this is first-come, first-serve). You're not restricted to this list -- if you'd like to do a presentation on some other poster artist, just name them in the comments section.

This should go without saying, but don't plagiarize. You'll get caught, and that'll suck.